Are customer support lines designed to deter callers?  

I've had the same problem and recently my internet provider has started to charge for these calls so I'm paying them for sitting listening to that awful music. I've had a problem this week and have decided to write instead of telephoning, it takes longer but is not so frustrating.
I think you're right that it's a ploy to stop people calling.

Most of those lines in Iceland don't start charging you until you are actually connected with someone, hope it's the same in your case.
I know that many of the call centers that are really just there to get your money, not to give you service, charge outrageous amounts from the time their machine picks up your call and then if you ever get a life person, they are trained to babble about nothing to keep you there. They are trained in answering simple questions with long and complicated speaches that you couldn't possible understand and often you are more confused after the call than before you made it.

I hope you have fixed your problem.

I'm beginning to think they are. Fortunately my ISP doesn't charge for support...yet. I had probelms with my service on and off for a month. I also checked everything on my end, then found out 2 other people in my immediate area were also having problems. Call the toll free number, receive an automated message with 5 or 6 different options...each option also has options. When the right tech support area is reached, I get a interactive system that tells me I need to be in front of my computer for the system to assist me. Of course I had no internet connection so when the "system" asked me "are you able to view the online support page?", I have to say no. The recording then tells me it is unable to help me and I will be transferred to the next available representative. After 20 minutes of waiting I have an actual human on the line. Unfortunately this person has a heavy accent that I had difficulty understanding and they also had trouble understanding me.:( After explaining the problem and the steps I have already taken myself, they do a line test and tell me everything is ok. A few more questions later he tells me it must be a problem with IE and I should either repair IE or contact my computer manufacturer. I explained that I also have Firefox and it still doesn't work. He said they only use IE and problem is not theirs, it's mine. He repeated this a few times despite my protests, told me "Thank you for calling, have a nice day"...and hung up on me! That was only the first call, it gets worse..lol.

Sorry for the long post, I guess I needed to vent. The automated sytems and the people that work tech support drive me up the wall.

most ISPs in Australia have a toll free number. The company I work for has a system where if all the technicians were on calls then it would go straight to message and the customer would get a call back :)

not only about ISP but banks as well, sigh. these customer supports aren't supporting anyone but themselves.

i really dont know.. what do you think?

I guess I am Lucky as in I have a Cell phone, and do not really pay when I call someone, or even when I am put on hold with someone, but it can be annoying when they have the message you can check online with them to report your problem, and it is an outage you are wanting to report. Just makes you want to Scream does it not. Well, better Luck to you next time.

So not only in Italy there are internet problems hehe...and also bad call center workers...